Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

China’s Navy to Join Pirate Patrols

HONG KONG — In China’s first modern deployment of battle-ready warships beyond the Pacific, a naval task force set out Friday to begin escorts and patrols in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, state media reported.

A supply ship and two destroyers — the Wuhan and the Haikou — departed from Sanya, on Hainan island, carrying a total crew of about 800, according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.

“In addition to missiles, artillery and satellite communications, special troops who are trained for the tasks will also be on board the warships,” said Xia Xinnian, deputy chief of China’s naval forces, in a news broadcast on the state network CCTV.

The task force commander, Rear Admiral Du Jingcheng, said the primary mission of the destroyers, which are also carrying helicopters, will be the protection of Chinese merchant ships passing through the gulf, especially tankers carrying crude oil. About 60 percent of China’s imported oil comes from the Middle East, and most of that passes through the gulf, along with huge shipments of raw materials out of Africa.

Strategic Forecasting, a private intelligence agency based in the United States, said in a report that a Chinese anti-piracy patrol would afford its navy “some very real opportunities for on-the-job training, covering everything from logistics far from home and combat against seaborne opponents to communications and joint operations with other, more experienced navies.”

The Statfor analysis also said the Chinese “will very likely monitor the way NATO (and especially American) warships communicate with each other and with their shipborne helicopters.” The navy would acquire new skills, it said, “under the banner of internationalism.”

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the United States Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said the coalition would welcome the Chinese ships and emphasized they should join in the international effort on a day-to-day operational level.

“China is ready to exchange information and cooperate with warships of the other countries in performing humanitarian rescue tasks,” Huang Xieping, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said Thursday on CCTV.

The Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said Friday that 110 ships have been attacked in the gulf this year, and 42 have been hijacked. Fourteen ships are still being held for ransom.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said 1,265 Chinese commercial vessels had passed through the gulf so far this year and seven have been attacked. A Chinese fishing trawler and 18 crew members were still being held by pirates, he said.

A European Union flotilla has begun patrolling the gulf in recent days, joining naval ships from India, the United States, Iran and Russia. On Thursday, a helicopter dispatched from a German frigate drove off a pirate ship that was attacking an Egyptian cargo ship with a load of wheat.

The Chinese task force commander, Du, said the navy has made “special preparations to deal with pirates, even though these waters are not familiar to us.”

If pirates are encountered, he said, quoted by Xinhua, “Our primary target is not striking them but dispelling them. If the pirates make direct threats to the warships or the vessels we escort, the fleet will take counter measures.”

Commander Xie Zengling, chief of the special forces unit, told Xinhua that he expects to have firefights with pirates. He noted that one Chinese special forces soldier could handle several enemies with his bare hands.

China has not sent warships out of its region since the 15th century, under the Chinese Muslim admiral Zheng He.

The modern Chinese Navy, officially known as the People’s Liberation Army Navy, has concentrated on coastal defense, regional maneuvers and goodwill visits to foreign ports. A Chinese guided-missile destroyer, the Qingdao, made a port call in San Diego, California, in 2006.

Both destroyers in the anti-piracy task force, state media said, were designed and manufactured by China.